Clare Gibellini has spent years doing the work — on advisory councils, at the United Nations, as co-chair of the Oversight Council for the National Autism Strategy — and for much of that time, she has quietly waited for someone to tap her on the shoulder and tell her she was not supposed to be there. This episode is the one where she stops waiting.
Jackie and Clare have history, which means this conversation has warmth and honesty in equal measure. They go straight into the real stuff: the imposter syndrome that had Clare asking a government minister whether they had the right email address when she was appointed co-chair, the labels she gave herself before anyone gave her a diagnosis that made sense, and the particular exhaustion of spending decades masking to fit in — from a military childhood and 14 schools before Year 9, right through to standing in the United Nations building certain that someone was about to find her out.
Clare does not just name the problem — she traces the slow, unglamorous process of changing it. The shift from her first UN trip, where imposter syndrome kept her on the edges of every opportunity, to her second, where she packed her biggest earrings and said yes to everything, including a dinner she absolutely did not want to attend. The moment a stranger told her they had seen her TEDx talk and she did not know what to say. The simple question someone asked — "is that true? Is that really 100 percent true?" — that started unwinding years of internal narrative she had never thought to question.
Running through all of it is something Clare says plainly and without drama: the stories we tell ourselves are the strongest ones we have, because nobody else can hear them, and nobody can challenge what they cannot hear. That thread goes all the way to the moment in the car, driving her son to school, when she decided that was enough — she was doing it for herself. The result is Junk Draw Consulting, named for a career that looks like someone upended a bowl of spaghetti and somehow produced something worth following. The world exclusive is at the end of this episode. It is worth staying for.
Resources and links mentioned
- Junk Draw Consulting — Clare Gibellini's new consulting practice (watch this space for the launch) - www.linkedin.com/in/clare-gibellini-653b98142
- Ignition App — episode sponsor, helping small businesses with proposals, engagement letters, invoicing, and payment collection. Offering 50% off for three months on Pro or Scale plans. Link in show notes.
- Ebats Accounting — episode sponsor, Lance Hall. Free consultation available at www.ebats.au — select "new business" and mention Women in Business.
Clare's work spans disability advocacy, neurodiversity, leadership, strategic thinking, and disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction. If you want to follow what Junk Draw Consulting becomes, now is a good time to start paying attention.
